Swishenator

Murray upset Marshall last night at Marshall 50 to 46. Will be a rematch in first round of 4th District tournament at Marshall.

I think if you polled most people around Region 1 they would agree with you that Graves is still the team to beat. Still, they would love to see McCracken on other side of bracket.

I thought now would be a good time to give a 1st Region update or as most on this message board call it Wayne County's first round fodder. The fact is this region is wide open. A case could be made that any of Calloway, Graves, McCracken, Marshall, St Mary or Tilghman could emerge from the 1st Region tournament. In the region last night Graves beat Marshall for the second time this year and Tilghman beat St Mary to split their season series. So where are we at this point? Rankings 1 Calloway 17-4 - lost to Graves early but has beaten McCracken twice and Marshall 2 McCracken 16-7 - lost to Calloway twice, beat Graves twice, split with Marshall, beat Tilghman 3 Graves 20-4 - beat Calloway, lost to McCracken twice, beat Marshall twice, beat Tilghman 4 Marshall 14-9 - has lost to Graves twice and Calloway once, split with McCracken, beat St Mary and Tilghman 5 St Mary 16-7 - lost to Marshall, split with Tilghman, hasn't played top 3 teams yet 6 Tilghman 12-10 - lost to Graves, McCracken, Marshall twice and split with St Mary 7 Murray 10-9 - young and improving club, lost handily to Calloway twice and also lost to Marshall 8 Mayfield 10-10 - could upset someone in post-season. Big game with Graves upcoming 9 Carlisle 10-12 - huge improvement from beginning of season 10 Hickman 5-7 - along with Carlisle 1st District favorites First District - Hickman County seems destined to be the number 1 seed in the District tournament at this point but does need a win at Fulton County Tuesday night to clinch it. Fulton County beat Carlisle at home early in the season but that was a much different team at the time than it is now. Carlisle has steadily improved as the season has progressed and would have to be seen as the favorite in the tournament. They split with Hickman during the season and their very young squad continues to improve. The tournament is at certain 4 seed Fulton City so it should make for an interesting 2-3 game to advance to Regionals. Second District - Much is still left to be determined this week in this District. Right now McCracken leads at 3-0, but they play two games against St Mary and one against Tilghman at home this week. Tilghman beat St Mary last night to stay in the regular season race for the one seed. St Mary is 3-1 and Tilghman is 3-2 at this point. With CCA being the certain 4 seed whichever team grabs the 1 seed will avoid the 2-3 game in this District among 2 of the top 6 teams in the region. If McCracken wins 2 games this week they will be the 1 seed. The tournament is at McCracken so they would seem to be the favorites. Third District - At this point this seems pretty cut and dried. Graves and Mayfield have both handled Ballard Memorial pretty easily in the regular season and would seem to be the foregone conclusion to play in the Regional tournament. Graves beat Mayfield by 16 earlier in the year at home but still has a game to play at Mayfield. The tournament is also at Mayfield so a chance to steal the tournament remains. Fourth District - Calloway won the matchup with Marshall earlier in the season but still has to play at Marshall on the 14th. Murray is 0-3 in the District but is still a dangerous team. With the tournament being held at Marshall it would seem Calloway and Marshall are huge favorites to advance. Regional Tournament Who wins this region may well come down to luck of the draw. Logic would say that one of Calloway, McCracken or Graves will advance to the state tournament. Which two of those get placed on the same side of the draw will be huge if the all win their District tournament. But in addition Marshall and St Mary or Tilghman could beat anyone on a given day. Could be best 1st Region tournament in a while. Big District games this week will begin to fill in some blanks.

I think Hopkinsville is really good, but I'm not sure they are as good as they were last year. I've seen them a couple of times and they didn't have a state championship team look to me, but things can obviously change. On the other hand they are capable of beating anyone on a given night.

I understand. That record for St Mary is deceiving though since they haven't played Calloway, McCracken or Graves yet and lost their only matchup with Marshall. They play McCracken twice next week so that will give a nice read on where they stack up.

I wouldn't argue with you picking any of the top 3. I think it will be one of them. Marshall and St Mary could beat any of the 3 on a given day I think though. First will come down to matchups in the Regional tournament. McCracken seems to have trouble with Calloway size. Graves seems to have trouble with McCracken guards. Graves handled Calloway early in season but Calloway is still fairly young. Who gets put on same side of region draw could determine outcome.

I'm not really sure how you arrived at St Mary out of Region 1, but as wide open as it is I guess it doesn't really matter. I would probably rank the region something like this; Calloway, McCracken, Graves, Marshall, St Mary, Tilghman.

McCracken sweeps season series with Graves. Stonecipher 22, Burnett 19. Region 1 is wide open.

I've always said Kentucky Basketball doesn't need classes based on size. Just have a private class and a public class. Period. Ends most of the discussion.

I tried to tell you guys in one of the All A preview posts that St Mary is really good. And if you don't know them they can give you fits. Doesn't surprise anyone down here in Western Kentucky at all that they won this game. And Greg Overstreet is one heck of a coach. My advice to Cordia is don't underestimate them.

Was a good game. Murray led after 3 quarters but St Mary made a late run. Hubert led with 25 points. Murray will most likely be the favorite in the 1st region All A next year.

St Mary wins 1st Region All A tournament as expected by most.

The main reason Region 1 is down this year is that District 1 is the weakest I can ever remember it this year, although Carlisle had a big win last night. Ballard, Mayfield and Murray also haven't quite lived up to expectations. Taking Heath out of the tournament every year will definitely hurt though. They have been an annual contender. Even Reidland had been a slight All A threat the last couple of years. Reidland and Heath both would have been likely contenders this year.

Ballard beats Hickman 60 to 52. Mild surprise.

Beyond shocked that Carlisle beat Mayfield. What an amazing job by their coaching staff and players. St. Mary almost seems like a forgone conclusion at this point. Of course I was wrong before (just look above!)

I haven't seen a 1st Region All A preview on here or report of any kind lately so I decided to jump into the fray. Quite honestly coverage of 1st Region Basketball locally has been awful and I haven't seen any previews here either. We miss Joey Fosko quite a bit. So here you go. The tournament started yesterday with 2 play-in games. Carlisle County smashed Christian Fellowship 59 to 23 and Fulton City outlasted Community Christian Academy 49 to 39 setting up the Quarterfinals beginning Monday the 20th. Quarterfinals 1-St Mary 12-5 vs. 8-Fulton City 3-9. Saying this game is a mismatch is an understatement. Fulton City's only 3 wins have come against bottom of the region teams CFS and CCA although they have gotten slightly better of late. St Mary is the overwhelming tournament favorite and their pressure will bother Fulton City. Expect this to get ugly early. 4-Hickman County 5-8 vs. 5-Ballard Memorial 1-8. The records would suggest that this should be a Hickman win but Ballard has played a pretty tough schedule so far. Hickman survived a tough schedule stretch of their own and have won two in a row since. They beat Murray in a surprise and handled Fulton City pretty easily in their last game. 5 of Ballard's 8 losses have come against the top teams in the region and they have also lost to Mayfield and Murray. I expect this to be a very good game and believe it could go either way. I'll take Hickman in a close one. 2-Mayfield 6-9 vs. 7-Carlisle 6-10. Typically Carlisle is a very dangerous team in this tournament but this isn't the typical Carlisle team. They are catching a Mayfield team that is improving by the game. They struggled coming out of football early but since Christmas have posted a record of 2 and 3 but the losses were all competitive games with 3 of the top 5 teams in the Region. Their last game was a road win at Webster County which is always a tough place to win. I expect Mayfield to win by a sizable margin in this game. 3-Murray 7-7 vs. 6-Fulton County. There was a point not that long ago that Murray seemed like the biggest threat to St Mary's chances of winning the All A Regional, but Mayfield has taken that title as of now. Murray has played well this season but has struggled a little in their last few games. They beat Ballard by 4 at home and then lost by 10 on the road at Hickman and then had a disappointing 20 point loss to crosstown rival Calloway County. Fulton County is beginning to show signs of improvement and have won 3 in a row but I still expect Murray to prevail in this game although it may be close for a while. Semifinals-My predictions 1-St Mary vs. 4-Hickman. These teams played right after the Christmas break at Hickman and St Mary prevailed 72 to 61. I expect a tough minded Hickman team to make this a good game but St Mary will be too much in the end. The key will be how does Hickman handle St. Mary's pressure. In the end Hickman will have a tough time matching up with Hubert while not freeing up the Vikings other shooters. 2-Mayfield vs. 3-Murray. This may very well be the best game of the tournament if it happens. Mayfield is emerging fast as a very good team and is getting solid play out of Love and Bacon as well as others. On the other hand can Murray's young players who seem to show so much promise for the future reach their potential and make the finals? I will take Mayfield in a great one here. Championship St Mary vs. Mayfield. I expect this to be a great one but I'll go with the biggest tournament favorite in quite some time. St Mary will advance to state in a close one. Players to watch. Patrick Hubert, St Mary; Deandre Love, Mayfield, Marshall Bacon, Mayfield; James Boone, Murray; Billy Speed, Hickman

Game was played at Tilghman. McCracken went on a 17 to 0 run in the 2nd quarter and held on to the lead the rest of the game. Stonecipher made a bunch of free throws late and ended with 24.

At Marshall County. Marshall led by 7 at the half.

Graves was odds on Region 1 favorite two weeks ago. Now the Region is as up in the air as it has been in a long time.

Big District win for McCracken. Huge crowd.

First time I have seen Holmes at Mustang Madness yesterday. First, they are really good. Bolden was somewhat held in check but you can see talent oozing from him. They really play a style that is unlike any other team in Region 1. Very physical and quick and the Region 1 officials didn't really call the same game they have been calling this year which is touch fouls everywhere. McCracken never adjusted to it. As far as why would Holmes come. Do those of you questioning this have any idea how much exposure those players got yesterday? It's a no brainer for them.

I agree almost completely with this list. I would probably have put Murray at 2 before games of last couple of nights.

I don't think you can really define what position Hubert plays for St Mary. He is 6'2" or 6'3" and guards the other teams bigger players often but creates from the point or the wing on offense.

St Mary may have trouble matching up with Brossart's size then. Very guard oriented team not big at all. Hubert averages over 20 a game and they spread the floor and let him create double teams. Very difficult to zone them because of their shooting. If you guard Hubert close he will drive, but if you back off he is a very good long distance shooter. They are senior dominated and very experienced. those kids have played a lot of tough teams over the years and are very smart.

Apparently Region 10 plays Region 1 in first round. I really know nothing about Bishop Brossart but their record looks really good. If they do get St Mary I don't think it will be easy for them. That team has played some good teams and been very competitive. Will be tough out.